Microsoft Veteran Exits Company, Announces New Venture

The fellow you may remember fondly as the man who made Windows Phone 7 a place where developers could feel welcome creating any one of the 27,000 apps already in circulation has announced his intention to both resign his post at Microsoft and start a new venture of his own soon. Long-time Microsoft veteran Charlie Kindel had been with Microsoft for a total of 21 years and was instrumental in bringing the Windows Mobile platform to where it is today. His list of projects worked on move from Windows 2.0, 3.0 SDK and DDK Support, Windows Home Server and more.

He writes his farewell letter and announcement of continuing to work under his own flag on his own personal blog at ceklog.kindel.com and goes from speaking about his work with Microsoft to thanking his closest family members for sticking with him along the way. Those of you having worked as long as Kindel has at a single company know such pains of coming home late and demanding that your children don't use Google:

"To my wife: Thank you for putting up with 'Microsoft Time' ('Honey, I'll be home in an hour.' Four hours later ...). I've learned everything I know from Julie Kindel." noted Kindel, continuing, "To my kids: No, just because I don't work at Microsoft anymore you may not use Google. Remember, every time you use Google, a puppy dies."

Charlie Kindel continued by writing that he'd originally suspected he'd be with Microsoft for around three years, but that he quickly found himself inside a company that kept his interest going with a multitude of new projects and challenges. He notes that his newest venture will be outside the company, on the other hand, and that this new company will be based in Kindel's current home city of Seattle.

What do you think? Seem like a reasonable amount of time to stay at a single company so gigantic as Microsoft? Time for Kindel to leave and strike out on his own?